Resistance: Europe Falls
by EmperorOfTheSunFirstAndTheLast
Summary: Nine years after SRPA extracted Alexei and Doctor Fyodor Malikov from the crumbling Russian Empire, Alexei Mikhailov finds himself a Lieutenant in the fledgling military of SRPA. But as the Chimera breach the Iron Curtain at last, can Alexei help the United European Defence hold the line? Or will he bare witness to the fall of the entirety of the European Continent?
1. Chapter 1

**Resistance: Europe Falls**

 _ **Chapter 1: Harbin**_

 _ **14:37 Hours, Outside Harbin, Republic of China**_

"We are here to observe Mikhailov, nothing more" Major Richard Blake said to the stoic Russian man. It had been nine years since he was evacuated alongside Doctor Fyodor Malikov, for all he knew he was the last Human Russian fighting the Chimera on the frontlines, but that mattered little, he was with his new squad, in the organisation known as the Special Research and Projects Administration, an American group, highly classified as top secret, they were in China now, watching, waiting, to see how the Chinese military dealt with the Chimera, but not to help. 'big mistake' Alexei thought to himself, 'we should be fighting alongside each other to slaughter the sub-human Alien hybrid creatures and restore Russia to its former glory' he finished the thought. "Understood" Alexei replied. His trigger finger was getting itchy, he saw in the distance, from the safety of his foxhole, the city of Harbin. SRPA were here because they had learnt that the Chinese were being hit hard by the enemy war machine, and they needed to be studied now that they were more organised than they were in Russia, for the past nine years no one had re-entered the former Russian Imperial territories, it was too dangerous, the weather was so harsh you'd lose your way, and if you survived the weather, you wouldn't survive their Anti-Aircraft weapons, who could track you in even the poorest visibility, so here they were, watching tens of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians trying desperately to fight the enemy that was as Alien to them now as they were once to Alexei twenty years ago. Hours passed by and the five men of Zulu 6 were glued to the carnage ahead of them, it was a strange site, everything North of the Songhua river was flattened, nothing but rubble, the metal carcasses of the Chinese tanks and aircraft, the dead of both sides, and the South, still stood, the buildings on the river banks were being hit hard but everything behind still stood, intact, as if the war wasn't happening, yet it was just one or two streets away from them. Amongst the chaos of battle, trucks loaded with civilians fled the city as trucks loaded with soldiers poured in, the Chinese had the numbers to counter the Chimera, but it wouldn't count for much when the Chimeran dropships arrived to the battle, after dropping hundreds more troops per pod, they'd soon start firing indiscriminately towards civilian and soldier alike, and those who don't die, will likely soon face the huge spire missiles, laden with Crawlers, the strange scarab beetle like creatures that render a person unconscious, whatever happens next, Alexei hoped he would never have to find out, but it soon meant they would end up as one of the Aliens.

"Major Blake, Sir, over on the North-Western flank!" Private George Manchester said, his voice trembling, "what the fuck is that thing?" another soldier replied, from the sound of things, it was Corporal Alex Garcia, both men were clearly fresh recruits, then pulled from their respected military organisation, be it US Marine, Army, Navy, Rangers, it didn't matter, and then trained by SRPA further to become a Special Forces operative, but it didn't mean anything when they saw the behemoth of a creature lumber forward, four huge mechanical legs and a strange bio-mechanical body, it must have stood at around a hundred feet tall, maybe more, Alexei couldn't tell from that distance, but it scared him, though thankfully through his airtight helmet no one could see it on his face, and he kept his mouth shut to make sure they didn't hear it either. "Hell if I know, someone get a picture of it, record it's actions, we'll take it back to Malikov in London, he might be able to shed some light from our observations. Unless, Alexei, you know something?" the Major replied, turning to the Russian with a curious tone to his voice, "No, never seen something like that before in my life Major, but it looks like there are Spires in those pods, and I know that isn't a good thing, we should warn them" he responded to Blake's question, he sounded frustrated at the lack of action and aid they were providing, the five of them couldn't stop the Alien threat, but they could warn the Chinese, have them flee or hide or something. "No can do, strict orders, we observe, and we report back, but we most certainly do not get inv-" he cut himself short as blood curdling screams were heard from the ruined city, Alexei was right, those were Spire missiles, and the Goliath sized machine/creature had just fired a pair of them right into the middle of the Human lines, suddenly the huge spires were a thick black landmark before returning to the shining silver of its metallic material as the Crawlers rapidly expanded around the surrounding area, it was hard to see but in the few clear spots, the affected areas were full of fleeing and horrified civilians, suddenly stopping and desperately hoping to force the creatures away from any openings as best they could, before falling comatose as dozens of the little alien bugs swarmed their mouths, ears or even noses, within seconds the huge black cloud had disappeared, and a several street distance of unconscious bodies lay silent amongst the cackles of the machine guns and whining of falling Artillery shells.

"That is not fucking right, how are we supposed to fight against that?" the final member of Zulu 6, Private First Class John McAlister asked, shock and confusion set the tone of his question, "with a lot of tanks and a couple of very big bombs" Alexei responded with a grim laugh, one which Blake joined in with. As night began to fall over Harbin, the huge lumbering machine had finally begun to withdraw, its spire missiles exhausted and with hundreds, if not thousands of people infected within the city's streets, its job was done, for now. By this point the Chinese had brought forward more Artillery, and were focusing it on the lumbering weapons platform. It gradually began to slow, and then collapsed, pierced by dozens of huge shells, it lay destroyed in the field, the artillery then began to focus on the North banks of the city, pounding Chimera wherever they took cover, but yet still more poured forth, and eventually the southern banks of the city were under the Aliens control, the sky flashed with each explosion, each gunshot the sound of rain as the shells of the tanks and artillery created the lightning and thunderous chorus to join with it. "Strangely beautiful" Alexei said to himself, he didn't intend to, but no one said anything as he watched the carnage continue to unfold, by now the trucks leaving the city only carried wounded soldiers, the reinforcements had quarantined the areas with the infected, leaving their bodies where they lay, fearful of what would happen if they moved them, Alexei knew roughly what would happen, and that is that they would become one of the enemy, but he did not know how, and was intrigued to see if the quarantine had any effect. "Zulu 6, this is Oscar 2-1 how copy?" a voice called over the radio, "2-1 this is Zulu 6, we copy" Blake responded, a yawn following, as if that brief movement is what exhausted him despite their sleepless day in the foxhole. "We're leaving for the Lincoln, we'll be back tomorrow at 06:00, until then, you're going to need to head to secondary extraction, our right engine is having troubles, probably the cold weather" the man stated, "understood Oscar 2-1, safe travels, we'll see you in the morning" the Major replied casually. It was going to be an uneventful night, and even if it wasn't, they weren't that far from the coast, though that would mean trekking through a part of heavily occupied Russia, and so none of the men, except Alexei, out of sheer curiosity, wanted to risk travelling through enemy territory, which the SRPA units described as, "grey zones". "Well, settle in boys, it's going to be a long night" Corporal Garcia said sarcastically as he wandered over to a corner of the foxhole and set himself down, presumably he was going to try sleep, Alexei merely adjusted himself and continued to sit, gazing into the battlefield.

'01:48 hours, damn, it's been a long night indeed' Alexei thought to himself, the bright lights of the explosions and Alien energy weapons reflecting off his visor. A droning sound began to echo through the breeze, gradually drowning out even the largest of explosions, and as Alexei looked up, he saw huge formations of Chinese Aeroplanes above, their bellies wide open, large bomb bays Alexei thought, as they arrived over the enemy lines, they dropped their payloads, thousands of large bombs cratered the already ruined Northern bank of Harbin, and even throughout the regions that were heavily contested, friendly fire meant nothing in the face of the Angry Night. "Shut up out there" McAlister shouted sarcastically as he threw his head back into his improvised dirt pillow, clearly having been awoken by the bombers, he was barely audible, within minutes the bombers had done their work and flown back to whichever airfields they came from. The hours passed by and eventually Alexei had managed to drift off to sleep, but when he awoke, he saw a heart-breaking site, the Chinese had been pushed back to the outskirts of the city, the scattered pockets of Resistance attempting an organised retreat. Checking his watch, 08:21, the situation had declined drastically in just seven hours, yet over the course of two days of observation the SRPA recon teams had seen the Chinese relentlessly pour troops and supplies into the besieged city, and now, there was barely anyone left, the quarantined zones had strange floating creatures, almost like flying Jellyfish, picking up the comatose victims of the crawlers and carrying them away to the North or the East, back to Russia, 'what are they doing? Is that how they convert them? What even are those things?' Alexei thought to himself, he laughed grimly when he realised Malikov would have a field day with all the footage and notes made by his team and the others here previously of the of the Chimera and their forces. Within half an hour the last of the Chinese forces in the city were either dead, or fleeing on the backs of their trucks, for good reason, as the Chimera chased them to the edge of the city, firing at the fleeing Chinese forces, the droning of Chinese Aircraft could be heard once more over the city, and this time, their payload was much more terrifying, as the first bomb hit, flames leapt into the sky, and soon spread rapidly within dozens of meters of the blast, within a matter of seconds the whole city was ablaze, and as the bombers turned around, they dropped a second payload of incendiary bombs, if his helmet wasn't securely on his head, he would have looked like a child who had discovered Santa, his mouth was wide open in shock, he felt himself begin to tremble, his stoic demeanour now shattered completely by the Chinese willingness to destroy their own cities to stem the Alien onslaught instead of attempting to reclaim them. 'Perhaps they have the right idea' Alexei thought to himself, as he was interrupted in his thoughts by a voice in his ear over the radio, "Oscar 2-1, Zulu 6, request pick up at Primary extraction point, Harbin is gone, I repeat, Harbin is gone" Major Blake called, the voice in the background was shocked, "Understood, the Chimera have taken Harbin?" the man asked, shock and fear in his voice, most likely under the assumption he would be facing the aliens extremely powerful AA guns, though he was, both pleasantly and unpleasantly mistaken.

"Negative, the Chimera didn't take Harbin, the Chinese have incinerated it themselves" Blake replied calmly, there was no response, the Pilot had heard all he needed to hear and was most likely on his way now to extract them, Alexei was relieved to be heading back to the Carrier, the sooner he was back in London, the better.

 _ **12:42 Hours, USS Lincoln Aircraft Carrier, South China Sea**_

Fleet Admiral Nimitz sat in a chair in the briefing room, his demeanour serious and yet relaxed, from what Alexei could tell, he was highly respected amongst the Lincoln's crew and indeed the vast majority of the US Navy. He wasn't too impressed with the commandeering of his ship by SRPA, but as Major Blake stood, clicking through their reconnaissance pictures on the projector screen, it was clear he was opening up to the idea, as if he knew this was an enemy worth studying. Alexei hoped deeply that the Admiral would assist SRPA in convincing the US government and indeed the rest of the world to prepare for and assault the Chimera, before it was too late, and before anymore of China was lost, and Europe itself was burning. The footage of the huge Goliath sized creature caused Alexei to slightly recoil, the thought of that huge creature raining down Spire missiles concerned him tremendously, but knowing that he could have saved a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand Chinese soldiers and civilians by ignoring Major Blake filled him with remorse, if they'd just been alerted to the risks of those missiles, who knows what could have happened, perhaps Harbin could have stood a little bit longer, perhaps the Chinese might have even held and forced back the Alien threat, or, perhaps, it was merely wishful thinking.

"By God, look at the size of that thing. Major Blake, what are in those missiles? Apart from a small crater, there's no damage to the nearby structures" the Admiral asked intently, "Sir, those missiles aren't designed to destroy, they carry pods, filled with hundreds of creatures, we call them 'Crawlers', they move quickly and enter the human body through the eyes, ears, nasal passages, orally, and render the victim comatose, no one knows what happens after except that they are carried away by these things-" the Major clicked through into the next image, one of the floating Jellyfish creatures appeared in front of them, "presumably they have something to do with how the Chimera create the Hybrids, but we don't know, I wish I could tell you more Admiral, but for security and simply because we just don't yet understand, that is all I can say" the Major finished.

"And this Malikov, he could tell you about them?" the Admiral asked, more out of sheer curiosity than malice, though it could be easily mistaken through his tone of voice. "Yes Sir, Mikhailov here has been alongside Malikov since pretty much the beginning of this thing, Malikov has been studying the Chimera since the mid 20's Sir, whether he is right or not, and despite how much he might really piss me off sometimes, I can tell you that he is our best shot at developing countermeasures and understanding our new enemy, it's imperative now we get back to him in London before anything else can happen in China, besides, we picked up Mikhailov and Malikov a few miles East of the Iron Curtain, we know the Chimera are there, or near there, we need to ensure Europe is sufficiently prepared, if China is under attack, it's already too late" the Major said, somehow sounding calm, uncaring of his fellow Human's almost. "Due respect Major" Alexei began before Blake or Admiral Nimitz could continue their talk, "but we all saw what happened in Harbin, the Chinese aren't going to let their people or their cities fall to enemy hands, if we give them enough Aid, perhaps we send an Allied Expedition there, we could stop the Chimera doing to China what they did to my home, One-Hundred and Fifty million people, give or take a few hundred thousand, maybe even less, died or turned, we could-" Alexei was cut off by a sharp alarm, "Well, I'm sorry to have your discussions cut off before they could begin but I would advise you all to head to your battle stations, I'll be in the bridge" Admiral Nimitz said calmly as the sirens continued to blare, a voice came over through the ships announcement systems, all personnel were heading to their combat stations, 'Shit, can the Chimera really mount an assault on our fleet? In just a few decades they have this ability already? Surely, they couldn't have enough dropships to form a formidable assault force on the fleet? Damn it' Alexei thought to himself as he followed Blake and the rest of Zulu squad to the armoury to grab their weapons. The corridors of the ship were empty of Naval personnel, the only people moving around were Marines, heading to their positions, and the five SRPA squads stationed onboard for the recon mission to China. "We get our weapons, and we head to the flight deck, we need to see what is going on up there, and if the Chimera are going to deploy troops, we need to do our best to delay their attempts to breach into the decks of the ship, understood?" Blake said through the squad comms, "Understood sir" Alexei replied, the remainder of the squad acknowledged the Major and as they entered the armouries, grabbed for their Folsom Carbines, a fairly new development it was an effective weapon, though untested against the Chimera, which made Alexei anxious, he'd rather have the ability to kill quickly with half a magazine then risk spending an entire magazine and not even hurting the enemy, but he had to hope that the tests, which showed it would live up to combat expectations, would truly live up to their testing results. The five men of Zulu squad made their way up to the flight deck, a slight rain had begun to fall, but all in all the visibility was good, AA gunners stood eagerly at their posts, so too did the few Marines placed around them, yet, it was silent, the entire thing seemed, off.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me" murmured McAlister, Alexei looked into the distance, roughly where the Private was staring. AA guns began blaring to life and tracer rounds flew through the air towards a Chimeran dropship, it nimbly avoided the vast majority of the rounds, but as it drew closer several 50. Calibre Machine gun rounds and dozens of 20mm and 40mm AA Shells slammed into it, the dropship came tumbling down onto the flight deck of the Lincoln, "move up, slowly, if any of the bastards survived we take them alive, it's a chance to find out more about the Alien bastards" Blake ordered, Alexei raised his rifle, and the four men of his squad moved forward cautiously, eight more Marines joined them, and they surrounded the burning wreckage, a damage control crew was on standby but ordered not to come near until deemed safe. "Mikhailov, Manchester, get in the cockpit, McAlister, with me, remember, we take one alive..." the Major said, his tone of voice then changed, "kill the rest" he said, anger and resentment, but for what? Alexei didn't know, and at that moment, he didn't care. The two men moved over to the remains of the cockpit, without even having to voice their motions the two moved in unison, entering the ship and ensuring they were both covered, Alexei flicked the torch on his carbine on, lighting up the darkened control room, three dead Chimera lay limp, impaled by pieces of the structure, one who's head had been pierced by the control sticks. "Cockpit's clear Major" McAlister said over comms, gunshots could be heard in the next 'room' which, in reality, was just the entrance to the giant box like contraption they deploy, containing hundreds of Chimera, usually, but Alexei hoped most of them were dead, and this was just the Major confirming that. "Ah fuck, let's go Private" Alexei said, the two stacked up on the door, Alexei managed to pry it open with a tremendous effort, McAlister stepped into the drop pod, moving to the left, Alexei followed and moved to the right, within seconds both men were forced to open fire as well as out from under the corpses of the Hybrids, a large group of leapers emerged, their bodies flying into the air as they attempted to maul and bite the four SRPA members to death, but to no avail, their torsos were torn open by the hail of .303 rounds fired from the Folsom, and within seconds the whole fight was over. The Major visibly sighed through his helmet, "Clear...Let's get out of here, the DC guys can get in and put out the fire, as much as I'd love to have SRPA study this, we'll strip it of what looks most important, and force it off the deck, can't leave the Lincoln at risk by having its flight deck blocked. Understood?" Blake asked. The men nodded and crawled back out onto the Lincoln's flight deck, "It's all clear, get in there and put out those fires" the Major shouted to the nearby Navy personnel. "And if you mention anything of what you see in there you'll be arrested for treason, just a warning".

 ** _11:00 hours, Central Command, London, England. One week after the Harbin Expedition._**

"It's intricate, interesting. I wonder if this is the language of the Chimera's creators, or if this is in fact a language invented by the Hybrids" Malikov mused to himself as Alexei sat, cleaning his Mosin-Revolver, one of the few things he had with him when he was extracted from Russia. "Hmph, well, it might help with something, Jet engine technology maybe?" the Scientist mumbled to himself again. "Doctor Malikov?" a voice called from the doorway, Alexei heard the authority in the woman's voice and couldn't help but stand to attention, dropping his revolver onto the table he was sat by. "Yes Captain, can I help you?" the Scientist asked in response to the call of his name. The middle-aged man turned to face the entrance of the concrete room, and as the man put down the piece of Dropship technology down, Alexei found himself glued to the woman in front of him, in a way she reminded him of Liliya, and finding her attractive in any way made him immediately ache with guilt. "Doctor, we're running out of time, Polish recon shows a large snowstorm gathering along the Russian border, in a couple of weeks, if not days, the visibility will be so poor we can't even begin to imagine what will come out from the Iron Curtain, have you made any progress on the project we discussed?" she asked, glancing towards Alexei, who still stood rigidly at attention as if he were still in boot camp back in the early days of his Army career, the Captain let out a small hum of some sorts, as if she'd just examined his very soul with one glance, "at ease there, you don't even need to acknowledge me, I'm not your CO" she said, turning her attention back to Malikov, who was now scrambling around some of the papers laying on his desk, throwing things out of the way regardless of importance, in his mind it was 'organised' chaos, but regardless of whether it was a good method of research or not it didn't matter, Malikov was a genius, and Alexei had long since stopped questioning his methods. "Here you go Captain, but perhaps you should be in Germany, Einstein is the one making the most progress on our new weapons, I'm just trying to understand the Chimera" the scientist replied with a flat voice, neither really acknowledging the Captain or his own notes, merely anxious to get back to examining the remains of the dropship that had been brought off the Lincoln. "I'll take that into consideration on my next deployment Doctor, thanks for your notes" the Captain replied, turning and leaving before anything else could be said.

"Fyodor..." Alexei began, when the Captain had left, but even with the confidence that she was now too distant to hear what he wished to ask, he found himself choking up. "What's wrong Alexei?" the scientist asked, barely glancing up from his journal, in which he was most likely sketching the dropship in great detail, analysing every piece, no matter how small. "Do you think the Chimera, the Hybrid ones I mean, the ones who were once Human, do you-" he choked again, his curiosity, and the sight of someone who drudged up memories of his old love and friends, forced him to try to ask. "Do you think they remember who they once were? Any of it. Do you think if the Human part could still, on some level, recognise what they had become, they would be happy that we killed them? As if it were some kind of – Mercy". The questions had left his lips, and the pounding of his heart told him he was not sure that he wanted the answers, but the desire to ease guilt that had begun to build up with the decades of fighting had encouraged him to force it out. The Scientist sighed heavily, perhaps debating as to whether he was going to answer honestly, or lie to protect the feelings of the man who had now, as if automatically attempting to steel himself, had returned to cleaning the Mosin as his hands trembled in deep anxiety. "Honestly my friend, I don't know. I've autopsied plenty of Hybrid specimens, but if there's any physical evidence of them remembering their humanity, I don't see it. That and the seemingly hive mentality of the Chimera, if they remember anything at all, it's pushed to the side by their collective psyche's desire to destroy Humanity. But, more disturbingly -".

Malikov had to force himself to stop, and think about the next words carefully, he suddenly remembered why Alexei would be asking such questions, and he wondered if felt guilt, if he wanted to be able to justify what they all did in the fighting in Russia, with no combat to focus him, his mind was clearly wandering, and that led to a need to rationalize. At that moment, he felt lucky, for him, there'd be no need to justify his actions until the war was won, when the Chimera were wiped off the Earth, and with their numbers having increased with the destruction of Russia and invasion of Northern China, that could be a significant amount of time, he would be perpetually focused in his efforts. Alexei, however, would face down time, and with no distractions, no fellow countrymen except himself, he faced his decisions and fights every minute he had no objectives. Deciding it would be best to just be honest, even if it didn't ease his fellow countryman's conscience, he continued. "Disturbingly, the Chimera have been witnessed in SRPA and MI5 recon reports, of carrying around objects that seemingly show their humanity, some have been witnessed even showing protectiveness over such things as Teddy Bears. I don't know if that is because they are freshly converted, and soon they will forget, or if they can fight off the virus despite the process converting them fully. At least, for a short time. But unless we take a Hybrid alive, and it would be extremely difficult without attracting significant hostile attention, I can't be sure" he finished. The silence filled the room and Alexei found himself unable to even breathe, at that moment it felt like everything had frozen, he felt his body tremble yet he physically and mentally couldn't fight the feeling that he was not in control. His mind raced as he thought about Liliya and Romanov and all his old friends in Russia. He suddenly found himself back in the Helicopter above Petropavlovsk, staring down at the General who fought to the end, the Spires that released huge black swathes of crawlers. The thought hit him, that everyone who remained behind, who couldn't make it or chose to cover the retreat, they'd all have been infected.

The thought of those men and women and becoming a Hybrid, or some other twisted form of Alien horrified him, bile rose in his throat and he was almost sick, the burn seemed to focus him as he attempted to ground himself, hoping there was no Human part left when the conversion had finished, because he realised then, at that moment, as he wandered if one of the Aliens he had killed were his old friends, or the General, or one of the soldiers who tried so desperately to hold Petropavlovsk, he realised, that some fates. Some fates are worse than Death.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Western Front**

 **09:49 Hours, Central Command, London, England. Three Weeks since Harbin Expedition.**

"The Chimera broke through the Red Wall. At 00:14 Hours Eastern European Time, the Chimera smashed through the wall. For five hours, they broke through every static defensive line that the United European Defence had built. A defence at Warsaw, amongst several other nearby regions has stabilised the situation, for now. The British Expeditionary force has been sent to plug the gaps in the line. The Chimera have taken the next steps in their campaigns, and we have, despite near constant monitoring, have been caught off guard. Now we're just one squad, but I am sure this will please some amongst you. Orders have come in from the President himself, we're going to the front, and our proximity to the operations of the UED have guaranteed that on occasion, we will be tasked with assisting. Any questions?" Major Blake asked, his briefing finished, he tried to maintain composure but he was eager to get involved in his first combat action against the Aliens, despite the encounter on the Lincoln, he had yet to fight the Chimera, and he hoped that his inexperience with the Hybrids wouldn't show. "When do we leave?" Alexei asked, voice weary.

Blake knew that Alexei above all would want to get into the fight, but he worried about him, he'd fought them for twenty years, and he knew of his questioning towards Malikov, he held hope that Alexei could overcome any qualms and kill the enemy before they killed him, or worse. "Ten minutes, at 10:00. There's a Kingfisher waiting to get us to Poland. I'll brief you more as we get under way. Now fall out, grab your gear, and meet me at the Hangar in five for checks" the Major replied. The SRPA squad stood and left, they were in their combat gear already, with their limited forces it paid to ensure they were ready to redeploy at any moment, and with the breakout in Eastern Europe, finally, it paid off.

Alexei stood with his pack on his back and Folsom slung over his shoulder, he was, for the squads sake, and to maintain appearances, his stoic self, though, with his helmet on, it didn't matter what expressions he made, no one could see, and sometimes, he did let out a more childish side to pull faces towards members of the squad, though he'd never admit it to anyone, he was, for all intents of purposes, the calm, focused Russian Veteran, who somehow survived a decade long war against the Communist rebels, and then another decade of war against the Chimera, even compared to Major Blake, he held experience no other member of the squad had, and it showed. He knew he frustrated Blake with his desire to fight, even if they are just there for Recon, but to Alexei he just wished for the War to be over. In the two weeks since he spoke to Malikov he had made his peace with whatever the Chimera were, whatever they once were, and now, he wanted to just end the fighting, he even strangely found himself missing fighting his fellow man, a time when warfare was not complicated, when you knew what the enemy wanted, be it land, resources, both, even genocide was something you could deduce, but no one knew what the Chimera wanted, they appeared genocidal, and yet their very methods suggested they needed to keep Humanity alive, fighting delayed their ultimate goal whatever it was. If it was resources, all they had to do was stay in Russia, there was plenty of Oil and Natural Gas, there were trees, tundra's and the temperatures seemed just right for their continued survival, yet now they were in Eastern Europe, forcing their war as far as Warsaw with little to no resistance.

His thoughts were cut short as he felt a rough tug on his backpack, Major Blake was inspecting his kit, ensuring it was tight and secure, after a few seconds he felt a pat on his shoulder, the Major was content with his gear. Alexei mounted the Kingfisher, joining Manchester and Garcia in the troop bay as Major Blake finished his inspection of McAlister's equipment. A couple of seconds later, McAlister clambered in, followed by Blake, who popped his head into the Pilots compartment and told them to get going. Alexei glared at the vast underground hangar, hidden just outside London, this was just a small part of the sections that made up Central Command. The entire complex was hidden underneath London itself, the perfect hiding space, and, underwater, which was a place the Chimera never seemed to dare to spread. Only the Hangar wasn't located underneath the city itself. The Kingfisher's engines whirred to life, and the lift rose steadily as a large doorway opened up, allowing the Kingfisher to take off immediately as it reached surface. Alexei glared at the city below as the Kingfisher gained altitude and wondered what the people below were thinking. Were they scared of the Chimera? Did they fear for their own safety? Perhaps, but it was a threat that was still a long way away, and Britain had an advantage most of Europe lacked, it was surrounded by water, the greatest defence the British had, and Alexei hoped that it would once more prove its defensive prowess by stopping the Chimera from smashing their defences, otherwise, with large numbers of troops and equipment in mainland Europe, they might not be able to hold at all.

 **10:36 hours, Over the English Channel.**

"Alright, listen up" Major blake said as he raised his gaze from a map of Poland. "We're deploying in a UED Forward Base at a town called, Ozarov...Oazavrov...Ozarow Mass...Ozarow Mazowiecki. Whatever the fuck it's pronounced. Don't laugh Alexei, I can sense the grin underneath that helmet" the Major said, probably slightly embarrassed that he didn't show up as knowledgeable as the squad would expect him to be, which Alexei knew was just Blake beating himself up for his lack of experience outside of operations in the US. "It's about 22 klicks west of Warsaw itself, where defences have been hurriedly constructed to hold back the 'brids. We'll be advancing into the city, and gaining whatever intel we can of the enemy force, and see if we can find out anything that shows why they might have broken out of Russia. However, as I said in the briefing, we're in deep, there will be heavy fighting, and so expect tasking to support Allied units if we can. When we get to the FOB expect some chaos, artillery units are going to be packed into the area, so are tanks and infantry regiments getting their orders, stick close together, we'll be moving out immediately. Understood?" The Major said, the squad just sat, silently, Alexei clicked his helmet comms twice in acknowledgement and then returned to gazing out at the Ocean, London was long gone now, with the light cloud cover he could just about see the white cliffs, if he looked to his right, he could almost make out the French coast, or, he assumed the French coast, it could have been Belgium or the Netherlands.

As he gazed at the land over to his right he found himself quietly chuckling to himself at the thought of giant markers that had the name of each nation on, just painted into the land, as if the world was just a giant map you could hang on a wall or stretch round a globe, as if the land was just little more than black lines, and he couldn't help but laugh at what it would look like if someone were to take the immense amount of time to do it. He didn't even know why he was thinking of this, but it calmed his mind whilst there was little to do sat in a helicopter. He just let his random map of the world take shape in his head as he leaned back into the seat, Blake and McAlister closed the doors of the troop compartment, trapping them in the helicopter, as Alexei sighed, letting darkness envelop him as he proceeded to drift into sleep.

 **17:30 Hours local time, Ozarow Mazowiecki Forward Operating Base, 22km from Warsaw**

"Wake up sleeping beauty" Major Blake said as he knocked Alexei's knee, the Kingfisher had finally touched down in Poland, the men left the helicopter and Alexei was happy to see such a large concentration of soldiers and artillery, tanks trundled along and trucks laden with troops, ammunition, weaponry and towing lighter artillery pieces to the frontline, the soldiers were of all nationalities, flags rose high, with a large banner of the United European Defence in the centre, Alexei's only regret was not seeing the flag of Russia fly alongside them. They exited the Helicopter with their kit and weapons and walked over to a tent that had the SRPA logo painted on to a sign in front of it. Officially they weren't truly here to help in the war effort, they were just here to continue monitoring the Chimera and their progress as well as how effective human weaponry and tactics are against the enemy, but Alexei was just glad to be back on the front, where he could kill more Aliens, because Intel was useful, but dead Aliens was the only way to win the war.

"Welcome to our home for the duration of the mission to the front" Major Blake said as he placed his duffle bag on a bunk. "Things are already underway here so we're gonna hitch a ride with a platoon of Czech troops, we'll help them as best we can, but for the most part, we just need Intel, any new forms, any new equipment, anything we don't recognise, we document, and if we can, we take with us, get it back to Malikov and the other scientists working on reverse engineering this shit, understood?" he asked, the rest of the squad had dropped off their bags and were checking over their carbines, everyone nodded in acceptance of their orders. Alexei felt his hands start trembling, he was itching to get back into the fight, he'd been forced to sit back and watch the Chinese annihilate themselves as they fought the Chimera, here, he wanted things to be different, and if him and SRPA could make the difference in Europe, he intended to make sure that he did his hardest to make them see that. Leaving the tent, the three other men and Alexei followed the Major over to a group of about eight or nine Czech's, they were sat on their truck, all except one, who Alexei presumed to be in charge of them, probably a Lieutenant, Major Blake shook his hand and spoke, his Czech was awful, and thankfully the CO spoke a modicum of English, they laughed about something and Blake called them over, the six of them then climbed into the back of the truck, the Czechs spoke amongst themselves as Alexei merely looked back at the huge Forward Base, tanks were being dropped off by Kingfisher's and other helicopters from allied nations he didn't even recognise, they were more advanced then the Russian's that was for sure, though quantity over quality was the motto of Industry when the Chimera began to expand more rapidly in the East.

The journey to Poland's capital took around half an hour, Alexei placed his helmet over his head and looked around, partly to make sure his gear was secure, but also as he tried to take in the sight, Artillery was firing away, some of the pieces were having their barrels changed, they must have been near non-stop firing at the enemy, surrounding them were ruined batteries, most likely destroyed by counter fire, as well as dead men and the metallic corpses of tanks and aircraft that had been shot down, dozens of wrecked trucks littered the road side, shoved to the side so the influx of troops and supplies could make their way into the city. The Eastern half of Warsaw had apparently been levelled by the UED forces as a way to create a no man's land around them, and with the sights around him, Alexei believed it, but the enemy were crafty, and he worried more about what was going on underground then in front of them, Sewer combat was likely to be intense, as the Chimera had learnt, Humanity would fight them everywhere, including places they were least likely to expect. So finding Aliens inside the lines of the UED forces were extremely likely. He looked around at his squad, and though they too had their faces covered by their helmets, he could tell they were scared, the Czech's too had fallen silent, their lieutenant however, seemed unfazed, by his age, it was clear he was a veteran of the Great War, though how he would handle contact with an enemy that was quite literally Alien to them was yet to be seen. Major Blake too seemed composed, he'd mentioned being ex US Military, so chances are he had seen action, though Alexei wasn't sure what had happened in the rest of the world over the past couple of decades. The truck drove along a road, that was pockmarked by bullet holes, shell holes sporadically spread around leaving it a moonscape, they soon approached a checkpoint, a road blocked off by barbed wire and machine gun posts. "Alright, looks like we get out here gentlemen, dismount, we walk to the front. Keep your eyes peeled! We don't know if they've penetrated behind our lines beyond this point. Don't want any of you getting killed before you've even fired a shot" Major Blake said. Alexei stood, waiting as McAlister dismounted, he walked forward and followed on, the noise was awful, shells were exploding in the distance, rifle fire, machine gun fire, and the whines of strange Chimeran weaponry in response. The rest of his squad, and the Czech platoon all dismounted splitting up between the different sides of the roads, they advanced cautiously, weapons drawn. After about ten minutes of walking they passed by Warsaw's old town, the place was mostly reduced to rubble in the counterattack that had reclaimed city, but there were a series of outposts where defensive positions had been set up to protect triage centres, they passed by one of the centres as they came up to a bridge across the Vistula River, it was a bloody mess, there were dozens of dead, covered by blankets, and piled high, the Doctors, medics, and whatever medical staff had been caught in the city were desperately working on stabilising whoever they could as vehicles both military and civilian were laden with those who were in good enough condition were being loaded up and taken away. It wasn't the most morale boosting situation to be in, but the troops moved along anyway. As they crossed the river, they could see the rubble ahead of them, perhaps two metres from the river was the rear line of trenches, some Anti-Aircraft guns had been placed behind them, and some light artillery guns were also mixed in, about a mile ahead of the rear trench was a second trench, they too had some AA guns, but they'd been dug into special pits to provide the men manning them some cover, and what was most likely another mile ahead, was the frontline, there ahead, was yet another moonscape, explosions bracketed locations meters ahead, with dozens of destroyed Chimeran Constructs, and likely hundreds, if not thousands of Alien corpses and limbs scattered about in the no-man's land.

The Czechs continued on into the trenches, lines of men were advancing past the SRPA squad as Blake scanned the area around them, his gaze came to a stop at a position south of them, a tall Spire, one of the few remaining structures this side of the river had caught his attention, "Hm, I'm going up there" he began, pointing to the building. "Mikhailov, Manchester, McAlister, head to the front, get into the fight, keep your ear to the Comms, if I see anything we need checked out, you guys are going to check it for me, Garcia, come along, you'll watch my back" the team split up, Major Blake and Corporal Garcia went south, Alexei tilted his head eastwards and his team entered the trenches. At first it was relatively calm, some worried looking soldiers sat on parapets and in shelters, waiting for the moment they'd be rotated up to the front, every so often medics would carry stretchers past the men, forcing them to the side as they dragged screaming soldiers with horrifying wounds to any medical post they could get to. "Keep up" Alexei said as he realised that the closer to the front they got, the more reserved McAlister and Manchester were getting. The gunfire and explosions got increasingly louder, and as they finally made it to the front, he saw uniforms of troops from dozens of nations, but not all of them stood, some were laying wounded, medics doing their best with what they had, others dead, and having been pushed to the side to make way for the replacements, an efficient killing machine. "Keep your heads down, follow my lead, try ignore any distractions, understand?" Alexei said, looking back at the two men alongside him, they found a point they could stand and Alexei shoved his carbine over the top of the trench, almost immediately he had a target, dozens of the Chimera surged forward, all he had to do was squeeze the trigger and one of the creatures dropped down dead, next to him McAlister also fired, another creature to fell dead, at least four more dropped down dead as the UED troops fired on the group of Aliens, the remainder of them withdrew.

Half an hour had passed since the Major had split the group up, but little communication had been received, the few messages they'd had were merely to let them know how many Aliens were approaching their positions. For the most part, the Artillery had stopped, the Chimera were cutting back on their attacks, so it was probably the perfect time to rotate crews, repair damaged pieces, and set up new positions. Or, they'd somehow been wiped out and Warsaw was cut off. But Alexei was trying to think positive. "Major, do you see anything up there?" Alexei asked over the comms. "Negative, they're silent, there's occasional movement in the ruins, but that's about it, they seem to be bringing in reinforcements, drop ships arrive periodically. I'll keep you updated if they make a major move" Blake replied. Alexei was hopeful, they'd won, there were no spires to be seen, and one of the Goliath sized monsters they'd seen in Harbin was nowhere to be seen, the Chimera had taken significant losses, perhaps their push into China had reduced their numbers enough that this was all they could take. 'Hope is a risky thing, don't underestimate them Alexei, not after all you've been through' he thought to himself, he looked around at the resting men, almost all of them sound asleep now, the few awake were smoking or taking sips of water from their canteen, soldiers from around Europe, Germans, British, Czech, Poles, French, Serbs, to think that just twenty-one years ago they were fighting each other, the sight was awe-inspiring, even with the exhausted troops lined in the trenches, for the Veterans, they were likely used it, a reminder of their experiences in the great war.

"Alexei?" a voice called over comms. It was Garcia. "Go ahead Alex" he replied. "There's movement in the front, get everyone ready, I think something big is about to go down. Major Blake is on the radio with UED Command, he's trying to get Air Support for you all, but you'll have to hope the artillery is enough, infantry is on the move, good luck down there" Garcia said. Alexei stirred quickly, he grabbed his Carbine and stood up, he fired a round in front of the trench, which gained the attention of the soldiers, those who didn't immediately wake up were woken by their comrades, they all stood too, Alexei quietly thanked Garcia and looked ahead, over the rubble, he could just about spot movement and fired on the closest shape to him, to his surprise his third round hit the Chimera in its head, and it slumped dead, blood spatter confirming that he hit the creature. Soon, the Chimera stood, and charged forward blindly, firing their energy weapons at them, several of the rounds glanced and slammed into the dirt, but dozens more hit the men in the trench, the artillery soon joined, shells flew into the Alien lines, limbs flew into the air, and bodies with them. The chimera countered, their dropships soon flew overhead, firing off Plasma rounds from their deadly cannons, AA guns fired in retaliation and soon the sky was filled with falling dropships, deadly shells, limbs and Anti-Aircraft fire. The firefight dragged on for another forty minutes, the units on the front were slowly but surely running low on ammo, but still the enemy charged forward, reinforcements also arrived for the humans, and so Alexei and his two team mates were relieved, but the enemy fire continued, and even as far back as the second line they weren't entirely safe, whilst dozens of Chimera ships had been shot down, they still continued their sporadic strafing runs against the Human positions, the rear line, where there was a higher concentration of AA Guns was safest, but the wounded were being channelled out, and so those who weren't wounded were forced to take shelter inside dugouts buried into the sides of the trenches.

Ammunition was delivered round, and the men gathered up in orderly lines, waiting their turns, it took almost half an hour before Alexei and his two squad mates got their ammo, and it wasn't much, enough for three more Magazines, the downside to the Folsom Carbine was the large magazine size, fifty rounds, perfect for prolonged engagements, but when they'd split their ammo into the new magazines, they had barely three and a half fresh magazines, and only one left over from the battle. The weapons were efficient, but the Europeans didn't yet have their industries set to a large scale war-economy, and so they were using earlier versions of their own Assault weaponry, smaller magazines, still effective though. But the downside, was that, being placed here amongst the UED forces, they were entirely different.

"Mikhailov, I have a job for you and the boys" Blake's voice crackled through on the radio, Alexei slammed the magazine into his rifle a little more forcefully than he meant to, the sound of his CO somehow shocking him more than most of the action had throughout the day. "Go ahead sir" Alexei responded. He tapped McAlister and Manchester on the shoulder and pulled them aside as a squad of Romanian soldiers marched forwards for their ammunition. "Aerial recon has picked up something big on the outskirts of Warsaw. It's something big, the description of it makes me believe it might be a tower, similar to the ones that cropped up in Russia, I don't want you assaulting it, but I need you to get up through enemy lines and gather a clear picture, it could be nothing, it could be the tower, it could even be something worse, but I need you guys up there to find out. I'm starting to worry that the reason the Chimera haven't pushed beyond Warsaw yet, is because they don't need too, it feels like they're consolidating, and I don't like that idea" Blake finished as if he was more trailing off than intentionally meaning to stop, Alexei thought that chances are the Major was merely overthinking, and he hoped he was, but it didn't matter now, "understood Major, we'll get you the intel you need" he replied.

"We're heading into no man's land, limited ammo, stick with me, do not engage unless necessary and I will do my best to get you home, we need intel on a position that Aerial recon has picked up, I have a feeling we will know it when we see it" Alexei said to his two teammates. They nodded, Alexei knew they were likely too nervous to really speak and he didn't blame them, he needed them to follow him though, so the loss of their voices meant little, right now all that mattered was achieving his objective and keeping his friends alive. He turned and the two men followed as they walked up through the trenches, following the lines straight to the first trench. The walk felt as if it lasted forever, after reaching the front, Alexei glanced around, he needed as suitable place to enter no man's land. If he just led the squad right out they would likely be cut down by a mass of enemy fire, and even if they weren't it would be well noticed by the Chimera would rush forward to tear them apart. Either way ended in a very premature death, and Alexei did not intend to die. He looked to the right of the trench, and about sixty feet down the line looked as if there were huge craters, he gestured to the two men with him and they followed the line down, platoon sized groups of soldiers marched by them, presumably either fresh troops or soldiers being cycled out for the day. The trio approached the location Alexei had seen and after a thorough look the Russian determined this would be the perfect place. "Alright, we crawl over, follow me, through the craters, don't stand up, don't even crouch, faces to the dirt okay? We get as close as we can through those craters, even if it takes us hours, I'd rather waste time than waste our lives, understood?" Alexei said to the two soldiers with him, who by now were finding it hard to hide the shakes that had come over them. Barely a couple of hours into their deployment and they had already seen more death and destruction than they had in their entire lives, barely coming to grips with the reality of fighting Aliens, and now Alexei was asking them to not only fight the enemy, but crawl right up into their lines, take pictures of their buildings or weapons or whatever they were tasked with finding, and then crawl all the way back, all without firing a shot if entirely possible. It was a lot for them to take in and Alexei pitied them.

The Russian took the lead, he climbed the trench, keeping as low as possible as confused men looked on, wondering who in the world was in front of them, and crazy enough to crawl towards the enemy. He clambered forward slowly in the mud that had been created by the destruction of the roads and riverbank. He began descending into the first crater and found himself sliding face first into a huge pile of sludge and water at the bottom, the weather, the river and the shelling had not made the no man's land a pretty place, and Alexei began to wonder if it would take days instead of hours to crawl through, but he had begun now, and he didn't intend to turn back. "McAlister, Manchester, get your arses up here and regroup on me" Alexei whispered over the radio, as if the Chimera could somehow hear him from a mile away. A couple of minutes ticked by and Alexei grew impatient, he was about to hit the comms again before he saw the recognisable helmet of a SRPA soldier pop up above the parapets, followed by a second. The two men clumsily crawled forward, sliding faces first into the sludge as had happened with Alexei.

There was a small climb to the top of the Crater but Alexei worried the digging from the top would draw attention, he looked around and tried to think. "Major, we're probably about, sixty feet to the right of the centre of the frontline, roughly, can you see us?" Mikhailov inquired. The radio was silent for a few minutes before he heard it crackle back to life, "I don't see you Mikhailov, you're on your own I'm afraid" the Major replied. It was not what Alexei had hoped to hear, he began to think through more possible plans before he realised, he had two choices. Dig the top of the crater, and hope a Hybrid Sniper didn't decide to use his face as target practice, or, dig through where he was, and hope the miniature tunnel he would be digging wouldn't collapse as the three of them clambered through. He sighed to himself and chose the second option. He grabbed the entrenching tool strapped to his pack off with a great deal of effort, and began to dig through the mud. Ten minutes had passed and he finally had a relatively stable tunnel through to the next crater, he sent McAlister and Manchester through first, and followed through last, everything went smoothly but he had to dig yet another path through the second crater.

Night began to fall over the front, they'd gotten lucky that this sector had somehow stayed quiet over the hours of digging, but unfortunately, it wasn't to last. A large group of Chimera had begun to advance and stray rounds hit above the three SRPA units as they attempt to keep hidden. Alexei had never felt so tense in his life, he slowly turned his head towards the two other men with him, they both remained still, almost lifeless, were it not for the occasional rise and fall of their chests forcing them to move they could be mistaken for corpses, which was a benefit as the Chimera marched around them. "Major, this front, how many are coming?" Alexei whispered as quietly as he possibly could, a crackle came back through with the sound of a loud bang, Garcia was likely getting in occasional shots as stray Chimera broke through weakened section of the line, "it's big, couple hundred at least. How are you boys doing?" the Major replied. Alexei, mouth open, suddenly found himself silenced as a Hybrid slid down into the crater, it struggled to climb back onto its feet as a hail of gunfire slammed into the dirt above them. McAlister slowly moved his hand, after a few seconds it found its way to his combat knife, within a minute the most painstaking preparation was complete, the knife was drawn and McAlister pounced, his knife slamming into the back of the Aliens throat, he twisted it, doing his best to make it look like a high calibre round had passed through, it was sloppy and blood spurted from the wound, his spare hand covered the mouth of the Alien as it attempted to screech, instead, a muffled scream was all that could be heard, and over the sound of such heavy fire being exchanged, if it was heard, it was ignored. McAlister immediately holstered the knife and dropped back down, as if nothing had happened at all. Alexei was proud, but concerned the body might draw attention. "We're almost across no man's land I'm hoping, going to take the riskier approach, almost compromised, we'll report again when we hit the objective, happy hunting Major" Alexei replied, he was slightly smug at the fact he got to potentially fight Chimera again, he wasn't looking for a fight, not right now, not when there were only three of them, but he was eager to return to the trenches and gun down as many Aliens as possible, the Major however, had chosen the overwatch role, and was now 'trapped' in the spire of his own accord.

"Okay, new plan, this tactic is too risky now they're pushing on this front, we climb over, fast, follow my lead, don't fall behind, let's get this done" Alexei said over the radio to his squad mates. The three of them crawled forward as cautiously as they could whilst trying to be fast. It wasn't long however before the Chimera once more began their withdrawal and dozens of Hybrids came swarming over them. Fortunately, none of them were smart enough to check the three human 'corpses' that were laying so close to their own lines, either that, or too stupid to notice, either way, Alexei was counting his blessings as they approached the enemy positions, the craters began to give way to more stable land and the rubble was still high enough to provide some cover and positions to hide as necessary.

 **23:48, Outskirts of Warsaw, deep inside the Chimera's area of control.**

The three men looked on in Horror at the site of the excavations. It wasn't a tower that any of them had seen before, this one had a huge cannon mounted on top, thankfully it was active, but Alexei dreaded the impact it would have on the UED's ability to resist once it was active, and if there were more like this, or if it could be moved by the Chimera's dropships, then it would mean destruction on a far grander scale then had been seen so far. Manchester began taking photographs of the turret as McAlister turned to provide security of their rear. Alexei opened up comms through the radio. "Major Blake, sir, it's not a tower, at least not one we have seen before, it's a weapons platform, the cannon mounted on top is huge, Manchester is grabbing the pictures and we'll RTB as soon as we can, you need to warn UED command before this thing becomes operational". It didn't take long for the Major's voice to be heard in response. "Understood Alexei, we'll debrief when you return", Alexei clicked the radio twice as response, this deep into enemy territory meant Alexei didn't want to risk any louder noises then he had to.


End file.
